Got a $100 bill in your pocket? Chances are, you’ll spend it more slowly than you would spend five $20 bills.

That’s one of the results of a new study from Profs. Priya Raghubir of New York University and Joydeep Srivastava of the University of Maryland. (Read their full study in the Journal of Consumer Research.)

The two looked at what they call the “denomination effect” — how the size of bills in your wallet impacts how likely you are spend them. Their research found that people spend less when carrying large bills. In short, you’re less likely to spend one $20 bill than you are to spend 20 one-dollar bills. It’s the “pain of paying”, they write.

“With a credit card, you don’t see cash flow visibly happening before your eyes,” Prof. Srivastava says. “When you have a $100 bill, you want to save it.”

It makes sense to us. Think of the last time you had a $100 or a $50. Would you crack…